I got a survey from the Republican Party ....

..of course, it will probably be shitcanned .. there was no place to write extraneous comments .. just "Agree" or "Disagree"

Picture you giving a DAMN, I said never.

ha ha, AGREE or DISAGREE doesn't even make any grammatical sense with like almost all of those questions!

My dad got some letter asking for money from the RNC last summer, and he wrote a lengthy response in return, in which he detailed all of the Bush administration's failures. He then got a letter back thanking him for his support and a full-size 8x10 photo of a grinning George and Laura, which he ironically put up on the fridge immediately.

My mother-in-law wrote to the RNC telling them that she didn't agree with their position on abortion. They sent back a form letter explaining the president's position (i.e. "he is against it" - no arguments given for why..) I imagine they put her letter up on the RNC fridge, ironically.

I received a questionnaire from the Conservatives the other day. I haven't filled it out yet. An example question:

"We have identified five key areas for action for the next Conservative government. In your view, which one thing would make the biggest difference to:
a) Crime: More police / Tougher sentences / More CCTV
b) Schools: Cut teachers' paperwork / Fewer exams / Stronger discipline policies
c) Hospitals: More new hospitals / Cleaner hospitals / More nursing staff
d) Immigration: An annual limit / ID cards / 24-hour surveillance at ports
e) Tax: Scrap inheritance tax / Raise higher rate thresholds / Double Stamp Duty threshold"

Note how *all* the policies you get to choose from are favoured Tory ones - particularly, you get to pick which of three tax-the-rich-less policies you'd prefer.

How will increasing close-captioned television decrease crime? Are most British criminals pissed-off hearing-impaired folk taking out their rage at not being able to hear "Eastenders" on an unsuspecting and unprepared public???

Closed-*circuit* TV - in other words, security cameras. They've become very common in British town and city centres in the last five or so years. Some places have even tried running facial-recognition software, but none have ever admitted getting it to work yet.

Closed-circuit security cameras tied into police networks... I think I read somewhere that the UK had this insanely high ratio of CCTV's to citizens...? Far higher than any other country...

xpost

yeah, there were a good amount of articles that came out in the last years in america(especially in late 2001) about UK CC cameras. one bit was that they're always touted as a means to prevent or combat terrorism, yet are usually employed just to enforce traffic laws, or with bored employees zooming in to stare at the asses of attractive passersby.

(Wow, was my joke THAT unfunny?)

Heh, it wasn't any worse than most of mine

According to the surveillance network, no one reading it laughed. Shall I have them brought in for questioning?

I thought it was funny, Dan.

I haven't seen "Eastenders", so i didn't want to comment

AHA - so, as noted on another thread i got one of these too! my theories on why are
1) someone being funny like when i put my friends name on this 'yes definitely send me catalogs, etc.' list at this confederate dorkshop
2) pure demographics - white male, veteran, working class, lives in rural area: probably bushco
3) write yr congressman and senators enough letters and if they're all republicans your name goes on a list of 'guider of republican policy'.

anyhow one thing that cracks me up about this is that even in literature to themselves, to the followers, they still have to be coy about what they mean, that even in a republican mailing by and large the have to hide the policy in vague 'do you like charity: yes or no' or 'should the govt waste yr money: yes or no' or 'should america be defended: yes or no', even the one time they show their cards sorta 'should partial birth abortions be legal: yes or no' it's still a way of them avoiding 'should abortion be legal: yes or no', republicans know that their policy and their actual ideology is still unpopular by and large. even with the alito debate, which the right painted as finally abortion put on the table, we finally had the debate out in the open, their guy couldn't say 'yes, you're damn right i'd overturn roe v. wade, it's bad law and abortion should be illegal' they still had to cloak themselves.

this is probably a test to see if you make it onto a list of people who will be receptive to the mailer's message.

it's mainly a cash hitup i think, if it were more venal i'd suspect it was the old gop trick of negative campaigning via 'polling' a la 'what's yr take on john mccain's black baby?' south carolina 2000 or 'what's yr take on hillary clinton's hiring al qaeda to murder vince foster?' ohio 2008. i'm totally sending in my responses though, although it does have this little plea below the big 'just put yo credit card info here comrade' saying 'at least send in $11 dollars to cover the cost of tabulating yr responses' which i'm like it takes ten minutes to tabulate my response, where the fuck can i get this job entering gop poll results for six hundred bucks an hour?

I get shit from the GOP all the time even though I've never registered as a Republican (ever), never given to a Republican (or even conservative) cause. I've always suspected it's a zip code thing, and to me it's like call screening: I don't answer the phone unless I recognize the number on Caller ID--like Rahmneb alludes, I fear that any response at all will validate their records somehow.

I get shit in the mail from liberal causes, too. But I'm pretty sure that's a result of the Sierra Club and Trout Unlimited selling me down the river.

...in order to keep it clean

few of the insanely many closed-circuit TVs have film in em after the first few weeks

There's no cameras in most of those black domes at Wal*Mart either.

I get calls periodically from the NRA, especially during election years, also probably because of my zip code. The operator would ask if she could play a recorded message from Wayne LaPierre or whomever and then get my reaction. The message would be something along the lines of "Why do politicians want to infiltrate our homes and take our guns away?" The operator would come back on and ask if I strongly agree, agree, was undecided, disagree, or strongly disagree with the comment or question. The one time that I bothered to stick around to answer, I said that I strongly disagreed ("Put me down for that one!"), and the operator said thank you, goodbye, *click*. I get the feeling that if I had answered anything undecided or better, I may have been able to stick around and get an autographed Chuck Heston photo.